Community supports county SPCA

Community members and volunteers gather Saturday on Medina's Public Square to support the Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in its attempt to win grant funding. (PHOTO PROVIDED BY DONALD BRECKEL)

More than 100 people, many with their adopted pets, attended Saturday’s Medina County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals rally at the gazebo on Medina’s Public Square.

Mayor Dennis Hanwell and Lafayette Township Trustee and county SPCA volunteer Nanci Shanley led the cheering.

The rally was a final step in the organization’s attempt to win grant funding through the ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge. The county organization is among six finalists nationwide in what started as a field of more than 300 shelters. The group has succeeded in each step of the challenge, the most significant being meeting the grant’s challenge of achieving 300 more adoptions in three months in 2012 than the shelter had in the same period in 2011. The county SPCA responded by adopting out 453 rescued animals — beating the required number by five.

One of the components the grant judges are considering in this final stretch is each shelter’s ability to garner support from their communities. The rally was videotaped, and will be included in a video to be submitted to the ASPCA that includes individual vignettes of support featuring community leaders.

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The Gazette is Medina County's daily local news source, serving the community since 1832. Contact The Gazette's news department at (330) 721-4065 or areanews@medina-gazette.com.